Go Daddy tells China to go, daddio

Domain name firm Go Daddy won’t offer .cn registrations any more because the Chinese government wants to know everything about the people who register domains.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Go Daddy executive Christine Smith told a congressional panel yesterday that her firm was worried about individuals’ security.

The company’s action was hailed by politician Chris Smith who described Google as “firing a shot” around the world and Go Daddy “has answered the call” of defending Chinese people.

All was not quiet on the Eastern front yesterday. State organ the People’s Daily went for a spot of irony, saying editorials in the Washington Post implied that Google was the spirit God of the Chinese people.

Worse, perhaps for Google, is that the People’s Daily claimed 84 percent of people in China thought that Google leaving India didn’t matter, and quite a few felt repelled – or repugnant as the op-ed put it – with “Google’s menacing gesture”.

It said some German media acknowledged that Google leaving China was a political show because it had commercially failed in the PRC.